Santo Domingo, RD
During the early hours of the afternoon of Good Friday, the sermon of the last seven words that Christ spoke on the cross at the time of his crucifixion dominated the country’s news content.
Between sermon and sermon, the various priests take the opportunity to address the main issues that concern the Dominican population at the time. This Holy Week was no exception, and the preaching work focused on the topics of abortion in the three causes and the fight against administrative corruption.
The very debate in society over the approval of the three-cause termination of pregnancy was the main theme of the sermon of the first word presided over by Father Pelagio Taveras.
“Father forgive them, they do not know what they do”, reads the first of the seven words, but Taveras replaced them with: “Father forgive them, but they know what they are doing”, referring to the theme that has become an already long-standing debate between activist groups and the Catholic Church.
“Forgive them when the sanctity of the human body, which is a temple of the Holy Spirit, is taken away and becomes a grave of abortion. Forgive them if the hope of an entire people who chooses to live a life is disappointed and, on the contrary, their rights to a dignified life are deprived, ” exclaimed the father during the liturgy held in the Prime Cathedral of America. .
In the same vein that “they know what they are doing,” Taveras also referred to the terrible services offered by the state in the various public bodies.
“Forgive them if they provide their poor quality services in public offices, hospitals, schools and transportation, if they want to destroy our natural resources based on ambitious interests and take the opportunity to remember that Loma Miranda is non-negotiable “explained the priest.
Likewise, he referred to the officials and heads of state who, after their term of office, received a pension “higher than it should”, while a normal worker with many years of work would be left “with a meager salary”.
Expanding his story, he pointed out that a large number of students are currently graduating from universities, but there are no sources of employment for them and they do not appreciate their talent, which discourages Dominican youth.
“Forgive them if thousands of students have graduated from universities but jobs are not being created, discouraging the hope of their talent and forcing them to emigrate without being able to fulfill their calling,” he said.
The corruption
Father Thomas García, whose turn it was just after Taveras, said that corruption, social inequality and selfishness are keeping the Dominican Republic from being a paradise, despite having all the means to be one.
During the second word, “Today you are with me in paradise”, taken from Lucas’ book, he emphasized the qualities that the country must be a paradise, such as white sand beaches, its natural landscapes, its merengue, but above all its people are hospitable. With a vivid faith and big heart, they are a true paradise, that corruption, social inequality and the coronavirus pandemic are taking them away from the promised paradise.
He said human trafficking, machismo, child abuse, drug trafficking, migrants, the exploitation of natural resources make us think about the way we interact with each other.
The father expressed solidarity with the families who have lost relatives to Covid-19 and those who have been unemployed as a result of the pandemic or the change of government.
And he assured that there is no cross in our life, no matter how small or big, “that Jesus does not share with us”, he also explained that because Jesus has lived the everyday reality of the simplest of people, he is moved and weeps at the suffering of beings people.
“The abandonment”
Father Joel Villafaña was the one assigned to recite the fourth word that says, “My God. My God, because you have abandoned me ‘, where the priest proposes that the churches contribute to the creation of social structures closer to the people, in addition to the gradual depoliticization of public institutions in order to’ not experience the drama of mass cancellations with a change of government,
Villafaña notes that his proposals are due to abandonment that “is growing in society, with notable consequences such as family, political and even religious abandonment”.
He himself says that fathers and mothers who refuse to take on the proper education of their children, and these are raised by grandmothers, care for and rarely those who need their father the most and there the religious said: “Daddy mama why I ? leave “
He also talked about couples’ desolation, machismo and feminism. Also the selfishness of the political class fighting not for the good of the nation but for private benefits and complaining of the abandonment of youth, firefighters, mentally ill, workers and migrants.
A call to stop violence
A call for universal brotherhood, social friendship and the elimination of violence were the “key” themes in Father Apolinar Castillo’s intervention during his fifth word speech.
In his talk, Castillo pointed out that “I thirst,” the fifth word of John 19: 28-29, refers to the “spiritual thirst of Christ to save and do the will of God.”
“Those of us who practice the faith today are feeling the feverish onslaught of unusual aggression, insults, abuse, disqualification and verbal flogging to manipulate our conscience to force us to think like them,” said Castillo.
The priest criticized the media, calling them “a kind of closed circuit that allows the dissemination of a lot of information and false news to encourage prejudice and hatred.”
Throughout the sermon, Castillo lamented that “ the person is no longer considered a primary value to be respected and protected, especially if they are poor or disabled, if they are not yet useful, such as the unborn, or if they are no longer serve as the elders ”.
At the end of his speech, the priest called on the Christian community “not to lose its boundaries by resorting to slander and slander”, and on the contrary, “to contribute to the brotherhood that the common father proposes to us”.
“That must also be our thirst in the face of the current forms of aggressiveness (…), it invites us to respond with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that goes beyond words,” he concluded.
Immoral journalists
The priest Arcenio Ferrerira, the person responsible for the last word, denounced that for years there have been journalists in the country who are doing an immoral, unethical and harmful exercise for society, with blackmail and media pressure in search of money.
This was expressed when reading the seventh word of the Sermon of the 7 words that Jesus spoke on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
He said that the practice these communicators carry out consists of locating government officials, business people and people, investigating the companies that may be developing the institutions they run, and generating false, manipulated or misrepresented notes to draw attention. and then send them an envoy to ask for large sums of money to stop attacking them.
Ferrerira argued that those who practice this practice, through social networks, and those he did not identify, are destabilizing families, harming names and reputations for money, and even provoking situations of violence.
By the way, next Monday, April 5, is National Journalists’ Day, he said that this kind of blackmail is trying to tarnish the spirit of this profession, which is so important to convey the truth of the information presented.